A Trip to the Coffee Shop

I started this project full of ideas I wanted to tackle. Some of these ideas included:

• dogs or pets

• coffee shop

• travel

• food & drink

• gardening

• exercise

• cooking

As I worked through my ideas and brainstorming I quickly came to realize some themes were rather ambitious while others weren't allowing me the enough icons to "fill" an entire set.

As a work from home creative I spend many hours chained to my desk, but everyday I allow myself a walk to my local coffee shop (which is amazing! in case you were wondering) for a little recharge in the middle of the day. Inspired by my daily trips I decided to create a set of icons that included many of the tools, machines and objects I see daily while getting my dose of caffeine.

Here are my first three icons, including their evolution.

As I move forward with my remaining icons I'm faced with the dilemma of consistency. The icons should occupy the same relative footprint but many icons I would like to include such as: mug, espresso cup, coffee bean, muffin, etc are posing proportion issues in order to meet this uniformity. I could add an amendment to the set with 4-6 slightly shorter icons, scrap these in favor of other icons, or work on the scale and size to make them work. I would also like to try adding elements that could suggest materials like glass or metal to add more detail and dimension, although I'm not sure it will work. Looks like I have some work ahead of me!

UPDATE: I've finished my entire icon set. I was able to work through some of my issues by expanding the height of certain icons by adding embellishments (i.e. like the compass rope in the instructional video) such as the hot beverage steam and adding more beans to fill the space better. I created more consistency and resolved the issues of line work versus fill shapes. I hope you enjoy.